yes I did. I am trying to locate an article in a post that someone posted here that explains in less words then I would probably do to explain integration. but since I can't cant locate it and what would be my reply may help others too here you go.-

My views and many of those professionals that I have had contact with and what is the bulk of the post I was trying to locate is that integration isn't the end result. that it happensright from the beginning and is just a foot long word for remembering what happened to you while remaining aware.

Now in my words The first time you have a flashback and can remember what is in that flashback is a person experiencing integration. a person who is sitting with their therapist and the therapist is helping them to stay grounded and tell them what they are remembering is doing the integration process. a person who is journaling and or drawing and is doing this while remaining aware of the present and writing and or drawing about what they are remembering of what they experienced in the past is doing the integration process. extablishing communication (Listening to the voices and doing what needs to be done to take care of myself for example haring a voice in my head saying the words "I'm cold" and going and getting a sweater, jacket or blanket and wrapping up in it) is doing the integration process.

Some people can live happily knowing they have voices and ignoring those voices for the most part and going on with their lives the way they are - losing time and so on and doing the minimum communication of occasionally listening in, drawing writing and so on and doing what will make those voices stop and occasionally use grounding techniques and so on so that they can have some sort of desired funtionality. and they do great.

But for alot of people like me doing integration (remembering while aware) is not a choice if I want my life to be better I had and have no choice but to remnember while aware what happened to me, learn and do coping skills like grounding and relaxation so that those memorys no longer trigger me into dissociating (daydreaming myself out of my problems).

The professionals recognize that movies with over dramatized and fictionalized for ratings such as the integration scenes in Sybil and The Three Faces of Eve scare suvivors with DID so instead of using the words "ok we are going to do integration work today" they pretty much say you know what we are not going to worry about integration you can decide if you want to do that later on down the road. and then they use wording like "lets get all the parts working together. The way we do this is through communication and sharing information, I want you to start keeping a journal and when you are dissociated see if you can write in that journal or other journals, start writing notes to your other parts of yourself and see if you get answers back."

What this activity really is doing is facilitating integration - the person remembering things when aware, without using that foot long word that scares the client.

When dissociated if the person had kept a dairy at that age that the memory had been separated they will be writing about things that happened to them then. Things in that memory. the person when aware reads that journal entry they wrote when not aware, they go through the denial and acceptance phases of pieces of that memory. When they have accepted that that piece of memory is there the whole memory starts coming through to them when they are fully aware by way of flashbacks and nightmares. When through the flashbacks nightmares, journaling and artwork and so on they have the whole picture of that memory and can think of it like a normal memory not by being triggered first the memory is considered fully integrated.

I was working on the integration process for two years before I said to SKR - You remember when you said I could decide later if I wanted to integrate? She said yes and I said Ok lets do it but one question how do I integrate a voice that I no longer hear? It seems like every time I remember the details of something that voice goes away and I don't switch into that one anymore.

She laughed and said - I'm going to tell you a secret of the therapy world - Integration is just remembering what happened to you. nothing dies or goes away like you thought does it you can still remember you had that alter and what that alter did and stuff but what was that alter is back to being you because it was just a part the memory of you doing something. But now that memory is where you can think about it like normal so you don't switch anymore into that one. L laughed at her and told her she was sneaky getting past my hate for that integration word by not using it.

you can find out more information about integration and my experience with it in my blog. To geth there -

click on blogs at the top of the page
click on the words on the left saying - get your own
then click on my recent entry. Last nights entry was Art Therapy Projects part 2.

Once in my blog click on the letter head - Me, Myself and I
then on the right you will see a blue link called - Blog index click on that. All my blog entries are listed in there. Use what can help you and pass on what doesn't fit you. and take your time some entries are graphic.